How?

  How is there a class available out here? There’s nothing.

  “Hello?” I call out.

  A class means someone instead of a node. How far do they have to be for the system to consider them as valid? A quarter kilometer or something? I don’t remember the number, but I know it’s one of those cases where the system isn’t working in treens of treens, like most of its large numbers.

  “Hello!”

  Shit, what if it’s Rich? Back to… what? Scare me to death? That can’t work, since this is telling me there’s someone.

  I call up the list of available classes before they walk away.

  That’s… that could be Rich’s class, with him running all over the place.

  Never heard of it, though.

  I call up its basic description. Right now isn’t the time to get info dumped on.

  That’s …not bad.

  It would have been nice to get a strength bonus, but health and endurance means my stamina and hit points will go up without having to do anything about it. And who’d say no to more intelligence.

  A direction sense is nice; not that I’ll need it once I’m back home.

  “List the class abilities that don’t have prerequisites. Name only.”

  That looks research heavy, although Taking it on the Nose sounds fighting related, that would come in handy as a guard. I call up its description.

  I whistle. That’s fifty ranks later, but a doubling of damage absorption is nothing to sneeze at, and while it’s not one for one, since I can get ability points from Quest more frequently than attribute points, my endurance will have gone up too.

  With that, Dad’s not going to have a choice but to let me be a guard.

  My enthusiasm dips. No, Dad might still force me to do crafting. Like they all tell me, my class doesn’t define what I do.

  Stop. That’s for the future. Right now, I get to make a choice.

  I glance at the timer.

  And I have an hour and a half to make it, or until they move out of range, so how about I don’t waste time.

  I hesitate. I do this and there’s no going back. I mean, this is better than anything my dad chose for me, but…

  But the alternative is to take a chance on whoever I’ll walk across on the way back. If I can even find my way without that directions sense ability. I know Court’s somewhere north of here, but I have no idea where North is.

  I select the class.

  Yes.

  Now, even if they move out of range, I have a class.

  No. I’m pretty sure I’m putting it in strength, but I’ve heard too many horror stories from back when the old folks didn’t know how this went, about those who put everything they had in what ended up being the wrong attribute for their class.

  No, Absolutely not. That’s going to require even more thoughts than the attribute, since buying a new skill with a point saves me months of training.

  I almost curse the inability to tell it to just give me the ability names.

  Almost. If I had. I would have missed my way out of here.

  Momentum.

  With that, I don’t have to worry about finding a hole I can climb out of. I can just go back to that last one, run up it and be out.

  I select it. I can grab Taking it on the Nose with my next level.

  Yes.

  That would have been nice to know ahead of time, but it explains the endurance bonus for a class that probably has a lot of sit down and read type of abilities. Two of the starting ones are almost pure research.

  Yes. Without the looming deadline, I have the time to look things over.

  Available Points to Distribute: 0

  Available points to distribute: 1

  Available points to distribute: 3

  When I focus on my name, I get the option to change it. Not happening. It’s my name, and I’m keeping it.

  No experience, of course, but from now on, that number’s going up. My attributes are… well, human. We all start with the same thing, with only our training to increase the effective pools, which look decent, although those four slots are going to be way too easy to fill. First investment of my own will be in a good backpack.

  The skills relating to my attributes are still at the top of the list, so I’m always reminded I should work on them. Or so Grandmother’s always saying. They are as they’ve been for the last few months, but they’re no longer limited to fifteen, which was my age, or even sixteen. Now that I have a class and a level. The only limit to them is how much training I’m willing to give them and points I have to put in them.

  Since I’m not assigning my points right now, and that’s not a Threshold thing, I approve my Sheet, and confirm it’s what I want.

  With that action, the timer fades away.

  My Choosing day is over. I am now, and will always be, an explorer.

  Well, that’s unexpected.

  I mean, I know every class comes with some related quests. My dad’s about making wood items, the farmers about preparing the ground, planting and harvesting. I guess it makes sense that an explorer’s quests would be about finding places and things. But to complete it just by being here? Okay, I did discover it; I got the message. But the cache? They would be some sort of hidden place where I’d find loot. I didn’t get any…

  I take the gloves out. I had to explore to find the locker they were in. I guess that how hidden they have to be to qualify as a cache varies? When those who go to the dungeon talk about caches, they always make it sound like one of the experts had to work at finding them. I pocket them again.

  A second level means an ability point to assign, and that one I know where it goes. I don’t bother calling up the ability list. I’ll go through every ability once I’m home and dad locks me in my room. It’ll give me something to do.

  I select Taking it on the Nose and Approve it.

  There, now, I can be a guard.

  With nothing else to take care of, I turn to head back to the last cracked ceiling and stop. On a hunch, I call the list of available class again, and Explorer comes up, with a note I can’t select a class. I set it to stay open and move it to the side and take a step. It disappears from the list. I step back, and it’s there again.

  They haven’t moved in all the time I took to pick my class.

  “Hello? Are you hurt?”

  They probably can’t hear me. A quarter of a kilometer puts a lot of walls between me and them.

  I look at where my way out is. The way back home to my dad and my friends and safety. Then into the darkness toward whoever is responsible for me getting a decent class and the help they must need.

  It’s an easy choice. Court will still be there after I’ve helped them.

  I crack my last light and set out into the dark—

  No.

  I am setting out to explore the unknown.

  I am an explorer now.

  That is what we do.

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